Weekend Confirmed Episode 20

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It's anything but a lazy midsummer's show as a Whatcha' Been Playin? packed with heavy-hitters including Civilization 5, Starcraft 2, and Madden 11 gets Garnett, Brian, and Jeff off to rocking start. There's so much in there that Cannata-ford a New Game spills over to the third segment before giving way to the Warning. Your thoughts on why developers try and compete with the likes of Halo and Modern Warfare for multiplayer shooters starts the conversation which also includes choosing the right place to sit when gaming, and a brief look at the issues raised this week on Gamasutra concerning whether focus testing resulted in Activision abandoning female action heroes. News from EA's investor reports hits the Front Page along with one of our favorite games, Torchlight, getting the sequel we all hoped for announced.

Music Break this week comes from Montreal-based hip hop artist Verbal. The featured track "Weather the Storm" is available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and Limewire stores. For more from verbal and the Northern Lights (NL5) hip hop collective check out the NL5 MySpace page.